1. Field of the Invention
The invention is in the field of accessories for domestic animals and it has the object to provide a device allowing the education of an animal held on a leash.
2. Description of the Related Art including information disclosed under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98.
Various devices for sanctioning an animal at a distance are known by a user, where the user determines the behavior of the animal to be at fault.
Among these devices one knows of those which allow the user to intervene while he has the animal at a leash. The means for disciplining can be punishing means by delivering an electric shock, by intermediate piezo electric means or based on a reserve of energy such as is described in the U.S. Pat. No. 2,023,950 (Hicks), Dutch Patent NL 8004998 (Dingeman) and German Patent DE 3300468 (Kullman), or by sound means of a moderate disturbance, such as described in the French Patent FR 20700665 (Jardin).
The use of the sanctioning means results either in a pulling exerted on the leash, such as is described in the German Patent DE 3300468 (Kullman) or in French Patent FR 2700665 (Jardin), or also is ordered directly by the educator based on the handle of the leash such as is described in the U.S. Pat. No. 2,023,950 (Hicks) and Dutch Patent NL 8004998 (Dingeman).
The concept of a device for the education of animals relieves a pragmatic approach and analysis of their impact with the goal of determining in an intuitive fashion the conditions of their operation. In the case of educational devices of an animal held on the leash it has become clear to the applicant, that the difficulties, which are to be overcome, lie in the compromise to be found between, on the one hand, the effectiveness of the sanction and its reliability, without considering how much the sanction is another perturbing means for the animal, and on the other hand an ergonomy looking to make its use easy for the educator without increasing the encumbering beyond that which is usually of a leash with its holder, and looking for allowing the user to sanction the animal freely while maintaining a strong hold.
An inconvenience of the devices, where the sanction is applied with an electric shock, resides in the fact that the sanction is a punishment; it has become clear to the applicant that it would be preferable to surprise the dog by a moderate disturbance, which the dog perceives, such as by sound means as described in the French Patent FR 2700665 (Jardin), more than inflict a pain on the dog, which would have the consequence of making the dog aggressive. In addition, the effecting of a high tension or pulling on the leash is not desirable, because it represents a risk in case of a deterioration of the cord of the leash, which would imply equipping specific means, which are not desirable and costly.
The French Patent FR 20700665 (Jardin) proposes to perform the sanction either by means of the type of a radio frequency, or under the effect of a pulling, exercised on the leash, according to the fashion of German Patent DE 3300468 (Kullman).
A major inconvenience of an order by radio frequency is associated with the fact that it does not simultaneously allow to hold positively the animal such as by means of a leash.
The inconvenience of an order under the effect of a pulling exercised on the leash, is a solo shifted with the fact that the use shows, that said order cannot be directly caused by a voluntary act of the user, but resulted by the exercised pulling by the animal on the leash, which limits this action to be performed as a sanctioning means.
Concluding, it is apparent to the applicant that none of the existing devices would be satisfying, because of the selections made by the conceivers of the prior art and the compromises flowing therefrom.
In addition, one knows devices for sanctioning a dog when the dog barks, containing mainly the means of fogging of a fluid, the operation of which is placed under the dependency of the means of detection of the barking of the dog. In particular one can refer to the French Patent FR 2625646 (Vinci), which describes a device of this kind.